My Take on Romantic "Chick-Flicks" // The Proposal

Thursday nights are “mommy-nights” for me. Every Thursday after work I head to moms for dinner. She either cooks us a tasty meal or if we aren't too exhausted after work, we venture out for a meal on the town.

I got home from dinner with mom at around 8:30pm this past Thursday. My roomie was home already and was chilling on the couch watching TV. After I unpacked my work bag and put away some laundry, I changed into some comfy PJs and went out to the living room to join her. While we were discussing how our days went and such, she began aimlessly flipping through the channels to find something new, when a most wonderful sight was seen: a glimpse of Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock carrying luggage off of a plane…The Proposal was on!!!

First of all, is there anyone that doesn't like this movie? I personally have not met a soul that doesn’t like this movie in some way, shape, or form. I mean, Ryan Reynolds shirtless + Sandra Bullock “getting low” + cute fluffy puppy appearances + Betty White chanting around a fire = AMAZING entertainment. (a very long equation, but very true nonetheless)

My roomie put the remote right down once we realized that the movie was on. First thing out of my mouth (besides “OMG, would you look at the bod on that fine man”) was “This may literally be the best movie ever”. Now, I think I was just ultra-excited that the movie was on when I said that, because I do think there are other movies out there that can be considered “better” films, BUT there is something about The Proposal, that makes it really stand out. I think it has all of my favorite things rolled up into one hilarious ball of perfect.

In the last scene of the movie, Andrew
(Ryan) turns up at the office to find Margaret (Sandra) to tell her not to go back to Canada because he loves her despite her craziness. After I shed a tear or two, I turned to my roomie saying “Seriously, I miss watching chick-flicks with girls.”  Of course I would watch this movie with Greg (he loves it too), but there is nothing like watching a good, old-fashioned, romantic, chick-flick with one of your girlfriends.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I watch a “chick-flick” with my girlfriends we comment on things we feel led to comment on, we tell stories of stuff that has happened in the past as it relates to a snipet of the movie, and we stay silent together at that, always amazing, “Awwwww” moment at the end.

A classic romantic "Chick-Flick" has the following:

1. Good looking male lead (Matthew M, Channing T, Bradley C, pretty much anyone named Ryan ect.)

2. Pretty female lead (Jennifer (Lopez, Lawrence, or Aniston), Sandra B, Katherine H, ect.)

3. Hilarious drinking or dancing scene (getting low around the fire in The Proposal, “Benny and the Jets” in 27 Dresses, pot brownie in the club scene in Never Been Kissed, ect.)

4. Random funny best friends to both male and female lead (usually cute or dorky in personality)

5. Other female character you love to hate (biotch in 13 Going On 30 -damn her!) OR another male character that you end up feeling a little bad for at the end  (Hot Irish man from Grey's Anatomy (Kevin McKidd) in Made of Honor)

6.  One or more hot kiss/love-making scene (the rain scene in The Notebook....) *cue heart palpitations*

7. At least one cute child or animal that has some odd, yet important role

8. An intense moment about 3/4 of the way into the movie that makes your heart feel as if it is being ripped out of your chest (I believe this is called the climax of the movie)

9.  A chase of some sort back to the other person. (when you cant possibly contain your excitement that the torture of the "climax" is almost over....wait, what? oh never mind)

10. And finally, 9 out of 10 of these movies have some kind of a "happy-ending"

Although most romantic comedies/"chick-flicks" are fairly predictable, and a lot of the time incredibly similar to each other, they never lose their luster to me. I may go through phases where I am not interested in the classic "love story" but they never last long and I am back to wanting to see the newest chick-flick that is set to come out in theaters soon.
Right now, that movie for me is The Best of Me, staring Michelle Monaghan (also in Made of Honor) and James Marsden (also in 27 Dresses). (Some actors are just REALLY good in love stories)

The Best of Me is set to be in theaters this Friday (October 17th). This is the first love story in a while that I have been legitimately excited to go see. I do not think it will disappoint. I suppose my next step will be to warn Greg that there is a tear-jerking, lovey-dovey, "awwww"-moment-filled, movie theater trip in his future. ;)

My Top 10 favorite Romantic "Chick-Flicks" thus far (in order):

10. Never Been Kissed (1999)

9. Titanic (1997)

  

8. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

7. While You Were Sleeping (1995)

6. The Notebook (2004)  

5. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

  

4. Moulin Rouge (2001)

3. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

2. The Proposal (2009)

1. The Wedding Planner (2001) 

Honorable Mentions

 Love Actually ('03), The Ugly Truth ('09), Crazy, Stupid, Love ('11), The Holiday ('06), Just Like Heaven ('05), He's Just Not That Into You ('09), 27 Dresses ('08)

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading :)
Have a great weekend!!

xo Dana

*all movie photos via imdb.com

Monday Look of the Day / MAC Rocky Horror Lipstick Review

Well, Happy Monday everybody!! (Did you get my intense sarcasm there? No? Darn, I was really going for it.) Anywhooo.. I do hope everyone had a nice Monday. It is Monday night now for me.

I had a great weekend..aside from being sick, that is. Relaxed a bunch with my man and my doggie, my Giants won, annnnd I ate a lot of tasty food! Hope your weekend was superb as well!


Wanted to share, with you, my look of the day...
Wore a navy blue/black 3/4 sleeve shirt and paired it with a navy blue smokey eye and a red lip! :)

This look was different for me, I almost always use a light, matte brown or gray toned color in the crease, never a color. I slept at Greg's house all weekend so I only had some of my makeup, so sometimes I find I do my most unique looks when I am at Greg's house.

After I shower in the morning, I go into the spare room where all of my stuff is strewn everywhere, put some PJs back on, and set myself up at Greg's dining room table- yes, the dining room table.

See, Greg has this huge mirror in his dining room that is at the perfect height for me to stand and do my makeup and I work best when the mirror is very close in front of my face. I am sure this is mostly due to the fact that I am pretty heavily nearsighted, but I also just feel most comfortable applying makeup when I am like 8 inches from the mirror. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!


So I spread all of makeup on a place mat at the table and get to work. I bring the bare minimum when I go to Greg's house so as to not pack unnecessarily when I stay there. (Now to me the bare minimum is probably more than the average girl, but maybe I can do a separate post for that.. ;) )

One eye shadow palate that I almost always bring with me is the It Cosmetic's Naturally Pretty palate. This palate comes with 14 matte, beautifully pigmented, shadows, and one shimmery, champagne shadow. I personally, only use the matte shadows, I am not a huge fan of the shimmery one (Transforming Pearl is the name of that one)

I used Sheer Joy and Midnight in this look - Palate is available at ulta.com

For this look, I ventured away from my normal cool toned browns and grays in the palate, and went to one of the darkest shades in the palate, Midnight.
This is an amazing Navy blue. It is SUPER pigmented, and blends so well when used with a light hand and a great blending brush. I worked this color (very lightly) into the crease until I was comfortable, then I used the color Sheer Joy all over the lid. I feel this pinky-toned, white shade really made my eyes pop and complimented the darker color in the crease. I blended more with Midnight until I was fully satisfied and I finished by smoking out my lower lash line with my tried and true Rimmel Scandalize Eye Pencil in brown. Little bit of foundation, blush, and mascara and I was good to go.







Intentional Fish Face

Now for the lips...

I, my friends, am a lipstick hoarder....and not just any lipstick... MAC lipstick. Yes, I am one of those.. and I LOVE it. I specifically, and religiously, collect limited edition MAC lipsticks. (That will definitely be another blog post) I recently ordered from a brand new, limited edition collection from MAC: The Rocky Horror Collection! Now, the movie itself freaked me the heck out...I don't even think I really enjoyed it. (I liked the Glee episode more..) BUT, this lipstick on the other hand is my cup of tea. There were 4 different colors to chose from in the collection, and I went with one of the red shades: Strange Journey.




Strange Journey is an Orange-toned, matte red shade. I really like the matte lipsticks from MAC so I did have high hopes for this one. The packaging is not the normal, satin-finished tube you are used to seeing with a MAC lipstick. This one is the same black color, but it has a shiny, glossy finish with the famous Rocky Horror lips on the front.


A quick swatch of Strange Journey

Strange Journey has a Matte finish

Packaging does not disappoint!

The Famous Lips!

Tim Curry!

I really do love the color, it glided on really nicely, and I felt like it really complimented my eyes shadow look well. I was a bit worried since I did a darker smokey eye than usual, but I think because I used the white shadow on the lid, it balanced everything out.









I adore the packaging of this lipstick as well. My favorite thing about the limited edition MAC lipsticks is that they usually make special packaging for each collection. Some changes may be more obvious than others in different collections, but I get flipping excited about anything that is new at MAC. My only semi-negative thing I would say about this lipstick would be the scent/taste of it. I cant quite put my finger on it, but when I put it on my lips today, I felt like it tasted distinctly like something other than how MAC lipstick usually tastes. Perhaps it comes off a bit more artificial than some of the other shades I have. However, I do not buy a lipstick for its taste or smell.. I buy it for it color payoff (and awesome packaging), and for that, this lipstick DID NOT disappoint.



I am sorry to say that all 4 of the lipsticks from this collection sold out on the MAC website about 24 hours after it was released...BUT I know for a fact that you would be able to find any of the 4 new shades through eBay. They will be more expensive than if bought when the collection was first released, but if you collect or if you really love the shade, it is 100% worth it in my opinion.

I, for one, have purchased quite a few limited edition babies off of eBay, and I have not been disappointed once. (just make sure you are buying them New and not Used! EWWWW!!)


Thanks for reading guys!! Off to bed for me.

Sleep tight! Don't let them bed buggies bite!
xo Dane

Side note: Maxxie enjoyed having mommy home-sick this weekend, I think...

I ended up being the perfect-sized bed for nap time!

I was a "Dog-Person" and I didn't even know it!

So my boss sent me home early today. I, my friends, am sick. Sick as dog, if you will. (will be more funny once you have read some of the post) I came to Greg's house straight from work and got to spend a sick, yet very nice, afternoon with my Maxxie until Daddy got home, hence how I got the idea for this here blog post... Enjoy!

I only remember having negative experiences around the few dogs I came in contact with when I was younger. It was just my mom, dad, and I until I was 11, and literally no one in my family had a dog. My father is from Syria and in his country, dogs are more often wild and much less used as family pets, so I am pretty sure dad didn't really like dogs. This is surprising to me because he was a pretty tough looking dude when I was young, so it is hard to think that he was scared of anything. My mom never talked about wanting a dog and I never really wanted one due to my unprecedented "fear" of them, so it never came up in family discussions.

I thought I was a "cat person" for the longest time. My aunt and uncle always had 2 kitties running around their apartment, Nicki and Jerri, I never cuddled with them or anything, but I wasn't intimidated by them the same way I was of dogs.  

My best friend at the time had a dog named Nellie. Nellie never did anything that scared me, but I always remember having a fear that she could easily hurt me. Nellie was probably a foot and a half tall and maybe 20 pounds at the most; now that I think about it, she was probably the nicest dog ever, but I always had this relentless stigma that kept me away from dogs in general.

One very clear memory I have involves a very rambunctious, and at the time horrifying, black lab puppy. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, one of my other good girlfriends and her family got a black lab puppy named Midnight and one day I got the courage to go to her house to meet the little guy. When I heard the word "puppy", I naturally pictured a small baby thing..well, to my surprise, Midnight was huge. I was always a very short, little girl (I still am), and Midnight was probably 5 months old by this time and, in turn, not small.
My friend had Midnight tied to a rope outside in her back yard for my first meeting with him, so I walked out the back door, saw the pup, and walked right up to him. Puppies are puppies, they are excited by a dust bunny let alone a new human being at their house, so naturally, Midnight was super excited and began jumping and running around like crazy. Somehow, someway, I got wrapped around in Midnight's rope and he was jumping up at my face over and over, seemingly to me, to bite my face off. (He probably just wanted to kiss me, but I didn't know) I remember feeling like I was trapped forever, when in reality, I probably just needed to calm the heck down, lift my feet up over the rope, and get un-stuck. My friend came to my rescue, saying "He is just excited to see you! It's ok!" while I just cried and screamed that I wanted him far away from me. After she got me free, I ran into the house and I am pretty sure I went home for fear of my life. (Drama queen much?) 

Well that experience really did me in, and my fear for dogs continued until I was probably about 11 or 12 when my Uncle adopted the sweetest 7 year old, German Shepherd-mix named Buddy. Buddy was a gift from God for my entire family. He made us wonder how we had never had a dog in the family for this long. Buddy was quite a timid pup, however. He was abused since he was a puppy in his former home, and because of this, was quite afraid of many things, and kept very quiet for the most part. Buddy never lashed out at us in any way due to his past life, he always stayed so well-behaved. My uncle retrained Buddy to know how to do "normal" doggie things, like play, how to not be scared of everything, and seek out affection from those that would happily give it to him. I remember Buddy as the first dog that I let lick my face.  From then on, I felt so much more comfortable around dogs. Now, when I saw dogs in my day-to-day life, I wasn't scared at all anymore; I wanted to know what their names were and wanted to pet them if I could. Buddy allowed me to see what being a dog-lover really was. In his time with us, Buddy battled two bouts of doggie-cancer, and unfortunately passed away during his second bout in 2012.

Here is Buddy a few days before

he passed away <3 RIP

My Uncle got Astro a couple of months after
Buddy passed. Hi Astro!

There's Coaster!

When I started dating Greg, his family had a little dog named Coaster. Coaster was a 16 year old Bison-Poodle who had just about everything wrong with him in his old age. He was deaf and blind in 1 eye, and occasionally suffered from seizures, but he was still kickin and livin life like an innocent pup does. Not long after I started dating Greg, Coaster's old age got to him, unfortunately, and he was put down. Coaster was 17 when he passed away.. 17! And he lived a wonderful 17 years with Greg and his family. He and Buddy are probably partying it up now in doggie-heaven.

Love at first site!

Enter: Max.

Greg adopted Max in May of 2012 during a time when we were not together. Max is a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. I had never heard of this breed until I met Max. Since Greg brought Max home, he stole the heart of everyone he came in contact with. Greg raised and trained Max in his parent's house for about the first year and a half of his life, and he did a fantastic job. This dog is amazing, I swear, and I know a great deal of it is due to the tender love and care that Greg, and his parents, gave him as he was growing up.

Baby Maxxie!

I began to truly know Max when he was about 11 months old, and I quickly fell head over heels in love. Max was a very rambunctious, energetic pup at that age (as, again, all puppies are) and it did take time for me to learn how to make sure he treated me with respect and as a "master". There was a long time when I didn't quite know how to act and train a pup to respect me because I never knew how to do it. Greg gradually taught me how, and Max and I have come a long way in our human-pup relationship.


I remember a specific turning point in our puplationship where Max and I really bonded and we both learned a bit more about the roles in each other's lives. Greg and his family were away on vacation and Max was staying in a kennel  for the week, I agreed to pick Max up 2 days early and spend the last night that they were away alone with him in the house. Something changed after that short period of time together, it was definitely for the better.

Since that time, Greg and Max moved out of his parent's house, and I spend a great deal of time there. I feel so much better when Max is around, and I miss him dearly from the moment I leave Greg's house, to the moment I step back into the house on Friday afternoon. I feel the most amazing sense of happiness when he is near me or wants a cuddle. I believe it is similar to what a mother must feel for their child. (Don't worry, I know Max is not a human being..don't worry. But I am sure most dog-lovers will know exactly what I am talking about.

Such a photogenic pup

Max is our son, and we are one happy little family. He is such a blessing, and I believe, in his own pup way, Max helped Greg and I be the strongest we have ever been.

In closing.. I am SO a "Dog Person". No ifs, ands, or buts about it. (Cats are ok too...if you catch them on a good day...) ;)

Xo Dane :)

Look of the Day // a little bit more about me :)

A random post for today, my friends.

A little bit about my YouTube makeup guru obsession, my makeup obsession in general, and my daily routine. Enjoy!

Before I go to bed, I usually watch around 3-4 makeup YouTube videos. Some of these videos may be skin care routines, hauls, or fashion posts, however the videos I enjoy watching the most are tutorials. Watching a makeup tutorial gets my creative juices flowing and makes me legitimately excited for the next morning when I go to apply my makeup. Some tutorials are a touch out of my league or a bit too dramatic for an everyday work day, but others are right in my realm of understanding.

After I turn my iPad off, call Greg to say goodnight, place my glasses on my side table, and turn my light off, my mind begins reeling over ideas for my makeup and/or outfit for the next day. (Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I’m just so darn tired, I don’t think about a thing, I just fall asleep) Once I have a broad idea in my mind of what I want to do the next day, I find that I quickly fall asleep.

I always set my alarm for an earlier time than I know my body will allow me to fully wake up. If I want to be out of bed by 7AM, I will set an alarm for 6:45 and 6:50 AM. This process usually has me up and at ‘em by 7:15AM. (always later than I plan for) Most mornings I drag myself out of bed, walk into the kitchen and start the coffee maker, (I love smelling fresh brewed coffee when I open the bathroom door after my shower) I straighten out the living room from whatever may have befallen it from the night before, and I go and turn my shower on. (Let it be known, the shower in my apartment needs AT LEAST 1 full minute to get from bitterly cold to a comfortably hot temperature. ESPECIALLY in the winter…ahh the wonders of a cheap apartment.. but I digress.)

While in the shower, depending how awake I am by that point,  I think about what the day has in store for me, what I might want to do after work, what a dream I may have had the night before means, and what outfit I plan to wear.

By the time I sit down at my makeup table, I usually have a pretty good idea of what kind of look I’m going for. Some days I feel like doing something simple and quick so I just throw a matte brown in the crease and a shimmery champagne color on my lid, slap on some mascara and be done. Most days, however, I have a full on creative fun fest at my makeup table. Sometimes I whip out a pigment or a bright Infallible shadow to play with, sometimes I use 3-4 different shadows all over my eye to create a fun, new look. No matter what I do on my eyes, I always enjoy the entire process of applying my makeup. I do not dread getting ready, I don’t find myself wanting to rush through application, I genuinely find that it relaxes and excites me at the same time.

I woke up this morning knowing that I wanted to do something with green shadow. (I love wearing green shadow as I feel it truly brings out the best in my eye color.) I decided to pair my dramatic, green smokey eye with one of my favorite blazers, which also happens to be bright green.

Here’s the look !

Early morning selfie in the car to show off my eye shadow 

my FAVE green blazer

Shadows used:

It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palate – Soft Light and Mocha in the crease

Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder – Bella Emerald all over the lid and inner half of lower lash line

L’Oreal Infallible Shadow - Bronzed Taupe in outer half of lower lash line


Thanks for reading guys! Have a great rest of the day :) :)

xo Dane

    Side note: Here is Maxxie looking super duper cuters.. <3 <3 

The Wet 'n' Wild Comfort Zone Palate Challenge

Hello all!~

Sorry it took me a bit longer than I initially wanted to get this post up here, but here it is!

I nominated myself to do what I am calling "The Wet 'n' Wild Comfort Zone Palate Challenge". I have not seen a lot of looks created with this Drug store palate in my many months of YouTube and Pinterest Makeup perusing, and I thought that this would be a fun and easy way to incorporate this palate into my eye shadow usage regimen.
I created 5 different looks with the 8 earthy-toned, shimmery shades, all a bit different from the next.
The 5th look I did was my "Friday-night" inspired look, so this one is a bit more dramatic as you will see.

Too Faced - Shadow Insurance

For all of the looks, I used my tried and true Too Faced Shadow Insurance as my eye shadow primer. I literally live by this stuff. I use it every single day, whether I am wearing eye makeup or not, and I see amazing results every day. My eye shadow lasts ALL day, no matter how much I have on, and it brings out the best pigmentation in each shadow I use.
I have been using this guy for over a year and he is probably still half full. I use about half-of-a-pea-sized amount for both of my eyes and it just does wonders every single time. I LOVE IT.

I did all of my blending with a MAC - 217 brush and my lid shading with a Rite Aid - Domed Shader brush. (unfortunately, this brush has no official name) In all of my looks I used the Rimmel Scandalize Brown Kohl Eye Liner to smoke out my lower lash line. 




Here are swatches of all 8 colors on the back side of my arm. (photos taken WITH primer and WITH OUT flash)
I have also numbed each color as I reference them in each of the 5 looks.

Look 1: Wednesday

Casual - Smokey

Shadow #3 in the crease,
Shadow #8 in outer half of crease and outer V
Shadow #2 all over lid (applied color twice to get pigmentation I was looking for)
Shadow #8 again to deepen outer V
Shadow #1 to highlight brow bone and inner tear duct

Look #2: Thursday

Flirty and Bright

This was my favorite look so here is a full on selfie :)

#6 in crease (light handed to keep the color controlled) (this is my FAVORITE shadow in the palate - I LOVE it!)
#8 in second half of crease and outer V
#5 all over lid (applied color twice to get pigmentation I was looking for)
#8 again to deepen outer V
#1 to highlight brow bone and inner tear duct

Look #3: Friday

Simple and Classic 

#3 all over crease
#5 all over lid
#1 to highlight brow bone and inner tear duct

Look #4: Saturday (morning)

Weekend Glamour

#6 all over crease (concentrating most in the outer crease)
#3 in outer crease over #6 to create a gradient from green to brown
#2 all over lid (second application with finger over top- I use my finger to make the color appear more pigmented. I don't know why, but it always works for me!)
#4 in outer V

Look #5: Saturday (night)

Sultry and Fun

#8 all over crease (this is my 2nd favorite shadow in the palate)
#5 all over lid
#7 in outer V
#5 blended under my lower lash line
#1 to highlight brow bone and inner tear duct
(I added a tiny winged liner using the Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner. I also lined my upper and lower waterline with a black kohl liner to make it look a bit more dramatic.)

Well, guys, that's it! I am so glad I stuck with this and found so many different ways to use this palate. I enjoyed some looks more than others, and I, unfortunatley, did not have the best lighting or camera to work with for the photos, but I hope this post gets the point across that these Wet 'n' Wild palates are NO JOKE! They are absolutely worth the $5.00, and when combined differently, the shades can create very different and unique looks.

Hope you enjoyed!! Thanks for reading :)

xo Dana



To order Wet 'n' Wild - Comfort Zone :
 http://www.cvs.com/shop/product-detail/Wet-N-Wild-Eyeshadow-Collection-Comfort-Zone-738?skuId=854619

To order Too Faced - Shadow Insurance : 
http://www.amazon.com/Too-Faced-Cosmetics-Shadow-Insurance/dp/B0013CSGBE/ref=sr_1_1/192-3636107-3543634?ie=UTF8&qid=1412090115&sr=8-1&keywords=too+face+shadow+insurance

To order Rimmel - Scandal'Eyes Waterproof Eye Liner : 
http://www.cvs.com/shop/product-detail/Rimmel-ScandalEyes-Waterproof-Kohl-Eyeliner-Brown?skuId=908044